Regularity of nutrition and exercise is a necessary measure!

Introduction.

If you've ever finished a workout and wondered if it did you any good, know that you're not alone. Any experienced athlete knows the difference between a good workout and a bad one, but what do you do when you're just starting out? Many beginners approach exercise with a “more is better” attitude and believe that heavy sweating and sore muscles are the main signs of a good workout. But is it?

When measuring workout success, sweating is not a reliable indicator. The amount of fluid you lose during exercise is quite subjective. Additionally, some gyms do not use air conditioning or fans. In such cases, it is quite possible that you earned your wet clothes by simply being exposed to a hot environment. Also, as your body adapts to regular exercise, soreness, or more specifically delayed onset muscle soreness, is not always a good measurement either. And even more so, if you haven't exercised for some time, either doing high-intensity interval training or lifting weights, you will experience muscle pain even if you haven't worked at your full potential.

And while the signs of a good workout tend to vary from person to person and depend on your overall training goals, there are some powerful ways to measure how effective your exercise has been. This is something you should consider when evaluating your training and planning for the future. Here's what you need to pay attention to:

Working out is a habit

So, of course, give yourself some time for this to really come into your life . What I mean is that you don’t need to change your training programs every day if you suddenly don’t like something. They say it takes about 21 days to develop a new habit. Although…

If suddenly this figure is right across your throat. And you know, some other way to make training regular - use your own method! You don’t have to endure just 21 days in the hope that on 22 it will become magically easy.

Your heart rate is in the correct zone.

Heart Rate Tracking
During aerobic exercise, your heart rate (HR) should be 70-75% of your maximum for at least 20 minutes. To calculate your maximum heart rate, a simple formula is usually used: 220 minus your age. For example, if you are 23 years old, your maximum heart rate would be around 197 bpm, according to the formula above.

Now calculate 70-75% of this figure to find your aerobic zone range, in our case it is 138-148 bpm. To keep track of your stats and progress, consider using a heart rate monitor. It can tell you what your exact heart rate is at the moment and how many calories you burned during your workout. It can also determine whether you are operating within your target heart rate zone. If you know your maximum heart rate, you can make sure you're working at the appropriate intensity.

Heart rate is an excellent indicator of performance during aerobic training; as for strength training, there is a slightly different approach. Since oxygen is used in small quantities for muscle work during exercise using weights, and the main mechanism of contraction occurs due to anaerobic breakdown of substances, you should take breaks between approaches - this is extremely important for improving strength performance.

Another note about heart rate: if you wake up the next morning and your resting heart rate is still above normal, you haven't fully recovered from your last workout! Remember that your resting heart rate can be a great indicator of overtraining.

Workouts to gain muscle mass

The muscles begin to recover and grow after the end of the training process, and on days 2-4 the muscle areas are fully restored, the strength and endurance of the muscle fibers increase due to the healing of micro tears in the muscle tissue, and the way these fibers heal is protein.

So, on days 2-4 after the last workout, the muscles are at their peak readiness for repeated stress. Typically, training days are distributed to pump certain large muscles + auxiliary small ones. If you miss 1 workout, the muscle load schedule will go wrong, and the body has the ability to get used to the load.

In other words, by skipping a workout, you miss the peak phase of muscle recovery, where it is ready for subsequent loads , it is in combat readiness, waiting for it to work hard, and the less it trains, the worse its physical condition will be - strength, endurance, elasticity , and this directly affects the decrease in muscle mass.

A LITTLE TIPS:

♦ If you missed 1 workout, next time do not start with it, but proceed to the one that was planned.

For example: you train 3 times a week: Mon (Back, triceps) – Wed (Legs – shoulders) – Fri (Chest – biceps). If you skip Monday and come to the gym on Wednesday, start with Wednesday’s exercises (legs - shoulders), and do not transfer Monday’s exercises (back - triceps) to Wednesday. Otherwise, having lost the peak of recovery for the back and triceps, you will also lose the peak of readiness of the legs and triceps.

♦ If you missed 4-5 workouts a month, start with basic exercises.

Missing 4-5 or more workouts a month is generally a disaster, but for example, you are not lazy, and this is how the circumstances developed. So, be sure to include deadlifts – squats – bench press, and also parallel bars – pull-ups – push-ups in your training schedule. With these exercises you will quickly increase your physical fitness to the previous level. Start all previous exercises with slightly lighter weights, gradually reaching the level you were at.

Feeling good.

Feeling happy and fulfilled (not exhausted) after your workout is another sign that you're on the right track. Exercise helps your cardiovascular system work more efficiently, and in response to increased activity, your body releases “happy hormones” - serotonin, endorphin and dopamine, which ultimately leads to improved mood and reduced anxiety and stress.

It should also be noted that proper balanced training not only gives muscle tone, but also affects mental activity. Therefore, your productivity, focus and clarity should also improve.

Why is training needed?

Breathing in trained people at rest is rarer and reaches 8-10 per minute compared to 16-20 in untrained people. A decrease in respiratory rate is accompanied by deepening of breathing, so ventilation of the lungs, despite slowing down of breathing, does not decrease. In trained people, the vital capacity of the lungs increases.

During muscular work, pulmonary ventilation increases sharply and can reach in some cases up to 120 liters per minute. In trained people, ventilation increases due to deepening of breathing, while in untrained people - due to increased breathing, which remains superficial. Deep breathing of trained people contributes to better oxygen saturation of the blood.

Changes in the cardiovascular system are characterized by the fact that the resting heart rate of trained people is lower than that of untrained people. The volume of blood ejected by the heart in one minute at rest is greater in trained people than in untrained people. Thus, in trained people, the number of heart contractions decreases, but the systolic and minute volume of blood increases.

In trained people, the systolic volume increases due to the development of the heart muscle, and consequently, an increase in its contractile power, as can be seen from table.

Change in heart rate, systolic volume and minute volume as a result of exercise (at rest)

During muscular work, an increase in cardiac output in a trained person occurs due to an increase in systolic volume with a slight increase in heart function; in untrained people, minute volume increases due to increased cardiac activity with a slight increase in systolic volume.

In trained people, the oxygen capacity of the blood increases, the blood reaction is less susceptible to changes, etc.

Training is directly related to the activity of the central nervous system. Due to the fact that all motor skills are voluntary movements, they are based on the conditioned reflex activity of the cerebral cortex. All the changes that were described above are also associated with the activity of the cerebral cortex. Training is the only way to develop endurance, harden the body, economical muscle work, and also develop perseverance.

N. E. Vvedensky emphasized that “gradual and systematic exercise is, generally speaking, the most reliable way of successful work productivity.”

Increased energy.

Exercise should energize you, not make you feel sluggish and tired. So you need to find the perfect balance of workout intensity, frequency, and duration to leave you feeling energized rather than exhausted.

If you feel exhausted for hours or even days after a workout, it's a sign that you're pushing yourself too hard. You may need to reconsider your fitness goals and training plan.

Remember!

You recover quickly from intense interval training.

Most athletes, with good reason, pay attention to intense interval training, since many studies show that interval training is capable of burning the maximum number of calories. And how quickly your heart recovers during periods of low-intensity training speaks volumes about how effective your exercise is. A healthy heart will recover faster than one that is unhealthy or not used to regular exercise. So if you notice that your heart rate drops for one minute while resting, you're on the right track.

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Sports activities. What's the benefit?

Many people who do not lead a healthy lifestyle are wondering what the benefits of regular exercise are. Performing physical exercise (not necessarily in the gym) has the following advantages:

• the immune system is strengthened;
• metabolism is stabilized;
• the aging process slows down;
• the level of endurance increases;
• the functioning of the cardiovascular system improves;
• strengthens muscle tissue and the musculoskeletal system;
• blood pressure stabilizes;
• toxins and heavy salts are removed;
• the process of saturating cells with oxygen occurs;
• sleep improves.

As you can see, there are many reasons to take the path of a healthy lifestyle!

You work hard.

Not every workout should leave you lying in the fetal position on the floor. But if you don't challenge yourself, your fitness is unlikely to improve. Set goals that are achievable but challenging. Remember: if you have a hard time saying a sentence or continuing a conversation with your workout buddy, you are working at a high level of difficulty. But if you are gasping for air and cannot say a word, then it’s time to take a break and reduce the intensity.

You notice progress.

Whether you run or lift weights, results aren't always visible right away. Visible progress requires a lot of time and work. But if you do everything right, you will notice improvements over time. Until then, if you start to notice that you can run a little faster, do more push-ups, or lift more weights than before, know that you're already a better person. These are exactly the indicators of success that you can be proud of, even if external changes do not occur as quickly as we would like.

Good dream.

This is one of the coolest benefits of a great workout because sleep is critical for muscle recovery, and it also provides benefits throughout the body, from improving memory to reducing stress levels. Luckily, exercise can help you sleep more soundly at night.

According to a study conducted at Johns Hopkins University, physical activity helps improve the quality and duration of sleep. Of course, many factors influence how well you sleep at night, but if you worked out during the day and then noticed that you slept more peacefully and woke up less throughout the night, you can probably thank your workout for that.

However, if you start to notice the exact opposite effect, this may be a sign that you have overtrained. Additionally, often vigorous exercise right before bed can keep you from falling asleep or worsen your sleep, according to Harvard Medical School. Especially if you've been doing high-intensity interval training. Therefore, schedule your exercise more than 2 hours before bed.

What happens after breaks of varying lengths?

• From several days to a week. It’s paradoxical, but if you trained very intensely, then nothing will happen in a few days and after a break you will quickly regain your shape. If there were moderate loads, the risk of losing strength and elasticity is much higher.
• Monthly break. The volume of muscle mass decreases, and endurance drops .
• Six months - a year. Motor skills are lost, muscle memory and coordination disappear. You will have to start everything almost from scratch, choosing the most basic exercises.

After any break, it is very important to accurately determine the load with which you can start.

Good advice: if a break does occur due to circumstances beyond your control, at least do or jogging every day

Focus on quality.

If you go to the gym six days a week and train for more than two hours each time, while focusing on the number of repetitions, this does not mean that you are maximizing your training. Also note that poor technique and incorrect body positioning during exercises can often make it easier and faster to do more repetitions, but such repetitions are not only unproductive, they can be very dangerous and lead to injury!

So next time, instead of focusing on quantity, think and focus on the quality of exercise. By paying closer attention to technique, you will better understand your body and the exercise itself. The mark of a good workout is the ability to concentrate on the muscles and body parts you are working on during any exercise. For example, when performing squats, focus on keeping your back straight, range of motion, and placing your weight in your heels. This will allow you to better use the potential of your muscles, and will give you more impressive results and satisfaction from exercise.

Another example of quality over quantity is the use of interval training instead of traditional cardio. While cardio alone is a good method for getting the fitness results you want, high-intensity interval training is still a better choice for training efficiency.

The intensity of your activities should match the amount of time you spend. The point is to train as hard as possible in a short period of time. Exercises that use fast-twitch muscle fibers (plyometric exercises, sprints, and high-intensity interval training) burn more calories during exercise and maximize the number of calories burned afterward. If you have an hour or more, lift weights and then do some cardio. Cardio burns carbohydrates first and then fat, for this reason it is better to use the energy from carbohydrates during strength training and only then move on to cardio, then your body will have no choice but to burn fat.

How to properly train in the gym?

If you have just started going to the gym, then we would like to give you some useful tips that will help you achieve good results.

1. Warm up thoroughly before each training session. By warming up all your muscles and joints well, you can avoid unwanted injuries.
2. Don't forget to drink while exercising. Your efficiency depends on your water balance.
3. Remember to eat right. If you want to lose weight or gain muscle mass, you need a well-formulated diet that includes sufficient amounts of proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
4. Train according to the program. You don’t need to do it anyhow, training, for example, one biceps and abs, and completely forgetting about other muscle groups. To achieve great success, you need a clear scheme and a competent plan.
5. Don't go for heavy weights. The progression of loads should be gradual and not abrupt, so as not to injure joints or tendons.

And of course, don’t forget that regular training is the key to success!